1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the field of a technology for establishing an association for a plurality of images, and more particularly to the field of a technology for establishing an association for a plurality of images by establishing an associated image set for any two images having a common content and obtaining an associated position information and an associated angle information thereof according to contents of the images.
2. Related Art
In the prior art, only several methods for establishing an association between images exist. In a first method, feature points of all the images, for example, overlapping portions of image contents, are analyzed, and the captured images are combined to form a panoramic image. In a second method, special hardware such as a camera, an infrared camera, or a laser range finder is used to extract environmental information continuously, so as to acquire environmental images at different angles, which are used for establishing a three-dimensional image map. In a third method, feature points and photographing angles of all the images are analyzed, and a three-dimensional image map is established using a three-dimensional modeling technology (for example, photosynth).
However, among the above technologies, the first technology can only be applied to establish a two-dimensional image map and process a simple spatial relationship, but cannot present the panorama of a single object; the second technology requires continuous photographing in the target environment, and has high device requirements for the special hardware, resulting in poor practicability; although the third technology calculates the image relationship using the feature points of the images, the image space establishment system regards two images having no relevant feature point as unassociated images, even if they contain a relevant image content.
Therefore, how to find an association between a plurality of images so as to assist persons in the industry or users in performing the relevant image processing operation is a problem to be considered.